


Treasure of the Sand

by SilverWing15



Series: Heart Of The Sea [7]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Merpeople, Ranboo backstory woo, warning for big head ouchie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-25 01:35:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30081480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverWing15/pseuds/SilverWing15
Summary: He doesn’t know where he is, he doesn’t know what happened. All he knows is the rough sand, the wash of the waves, the pounding of his head, and the gut churning spinning of the world. Things weren’t always like this...were they?His head hurts so much.
Series: Heart Of The Sea [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2185698
Comments: 5
Kudos: 152
Collections: Completed stories I've read





	Treasure of the Sand

**Author's Note:**

> Final installment of Mer AU fam, its finally here. This AU has been so much fun to work on and I ended up doing a lot more for it than I thought I would. I hope everyone has enjoyed reading as much as I have writing!

He’s so dizzy. The sand is rough under his fingers, the waves crash nearby, sometimes water floods over him. His head hurts, Sea Mother his head hurts. He tries to sit up but everything is spinning so fast. He tips over. 

His head hurts so much. He curls around it with a whimper. Its worse having his eyes closed because then there is nothing to anchor himself on in the spinning, but having them open means the light is painfully bright. 

He doesn’t know where he is, he doesn’t know what happened. All he knows is the rough sand, the wash of the waves, the pounding of his head, and the gut churning spinning of the world. Things weren’t always like this...were they? 

His head hurts so much. 

He hears something, not the waves, or the sea birds. Its a hum. 

Fear shoots down his spine. There was a hum before...wasn’t there? There was a hum, and then it was a growl and then everything exploded into pain. He has to move. He has to get away. 

He uncurls, moaning as the dizziness gets worse. He tries to crawl towards the water but which way even  _ is _ the water? It sounds like its coming from all around him. He can’t. He doesn’t know where to go…

He chirps, but he’s not sure who he’s calling to. There were others, weren’t there? He was….looking for them. The humming is making it up to a growl now. He curls back up, sheltering his head in his arms. 

There is something tacky and wet in his hair, warm, too. What…? 

The growl gets closer. He whines and chirps again. 

There is still no answer. 

And then the growl stops. There is splashing, and voices. 

Is this who he was calling to? 

He lifts his head, squinting his eyes but the light is so bright. He can only make out silhouettes. They’re...familiar in a vague way. He can’t remember why. 

He chirps again and one of the figures responds with a deep rumble. Safety. They’re going to help. He lays back on the sand, his head hurts so much. 

He whines as hands search through his hair. Someone rumbles again, but there are voices talking now. Chattering like sea birds, there’s something wrong about that. Its not the way they’re supposed to sound, he thinks dimly. 

The hands brush down his neck and spine and the voices chatter to one another and then they are pulling him onto a strange hard thing. Something wraps around him and its a good thing because it keeps him from falling off the hard thing when it is lifted. 

He’s so dizzy. 

*** 

Phil paces the hallway outside of the medbay. Head wounds always bleed a lot, he knows this, but it isn’t a comfort. There had been  _ so much blood _ on the sandbar, and one little mer kid in the middle of it. Sand churned up around him where he’d tried to move and been too dizzy to do so. 

The uncertain little warble the boy had made when they got him into the boat still echoes in his ears. Niki had been tense and silent on the way back to the docks, never a good sign. She’s been locked in there with the boy for a couple hours now, an even worse sign. 

Boat strikes are never pretty, no matter how minor they are. This one isn’t a minor one. Its not the  _ worst _ possible outcome, the kid had avoided the propeller at least. But the head wound was bad, and he’d been left on that sandbar for awhile. 

The door opens, and Phil turns to face NIki. She looks tired, but not grim. Nod sorrowful. “He’ll be alright,” she says, slumping into a chair. “I’m not sure what sort of damage there may be to his brain but it isn’t going to kill him.” 

Phil’s breath leaves him all at once and he plops down next to her. His wing curls around her shoulders, “you did good,” he says. 

She smiles at him tiredly, but there is pride there too. She’s come so far from that nervous kid fresh out of school who’d shown up at the door to the center, nothing more than a diploma and determination at her side.

*** 

The kid gets named Ranboo in the next couple of days, after the island near where he was found. Phil takes a couple shifts watching over him--he’s out of it enough that he doesn’t seem to mind humans--and he’s definitely still feeing the concussion. 

Niki shaved half his head to get to the injury and Phil can see the line of stitches on his scalp, following the wavering line of the blow. Its a big wound, especially on such a small kid. Ranboo is only ten or so by their estimates, around Tubbo’s age. It’ll be good for them to have each other. A lot of the older kids have ‘graduated’ and flown the coop so Tubbo’s been the only one in his age bracket for a bit. 

Over the next few weeks, Ranboo improves. He stays awake longer, he seems to be getting his balance back, and he’s picking up a bit of english as well. The effects of his head injury are slowly making themselves apparent though, there’s something wrong with his memory. 

He forgets things, more than he should, sometimes they come back, but sometimes the information is simply gone. It frustrates the kid, Phil can tell. 

Niki stays up late into the night, looking for solutions, but there just isn’t research on this sort of thing for mer. The laws keep them safe, yes, but sometimes, they also work against them. 

Ranboo might be frustrated with his memory, but beyond that he is a sweet kid. He’s not as wary or aggressive as the majority of mer kids, they aren’t sure if he simply doesn’t remember being taught to fear humans or if his pod was friendly with them. He doesn’t know english, which points to the first option. 

Finally, Niki removes his stitches and he can go to the Atrium with the rest of the kids. They have a long road with him, but Phil can see him already warming up to Tubbo under Techno’s watchful eye. 

> **Author's Note:**

> Hopefully not too long after this I'll be able to start posting Mafia AU! I'm just about finished with it as I'm writing this, final showdown ongoing and such. Just need to wrap that up and I'll be good to go! As per usual, here is you guys a sneak peek of that: 
> 
> It isn’t the sort of place you would look for a couple of high school kids smart enough to pull one over on an international crime organization. The apartment is cheap and it shows.  
> But if you’re perceptive enough, you can look past the water stains and the cracked drywall. You can see evidence of a home vacated cleanly and efficiently. The evacuation is more orderly than most Phli has witnessed.  
> Usually when someone hears he’s coming around, they storm through their house in a whirlwind, not caring for what they might leave scattered in their wake. This place is messy, sure, but its messy in the way one might expect that a house full of teenage boys would be.  
> Phil picks his way past a jacket left discarded in the entryway and deeper into the apartment. There is a sagging couch with a stack of school books scattered on it.  
> He flips open the cover of one, eyes trailing down the ‘distributed to’ list. There, at the very bottom is familiar handwriting. Tommy.  
> Their thief. 
> 
> I'm really excited to get to show you guys the rest of the fic! There are lots of sneak peeks on my tumblr (technobladesbasement) if you want more! Its honestly been one of my favorite fics to write so far. Along with Vampire AU, of course ((speaking of, Maddie is posting the sequel of Ruby in the Moonlight, be sure to check it out its Amazing))


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